The disclosures herein relate generally to information handling systems and more particularly to a target information handling system which provides device virtualization of a device actually located in a remote information handling system. In such systems the device in the remote system appears to the target system as though it were a device located in the target system.
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems typically include storage devices to retain data for use by such systems. For example, these systems can include media drives such as hard disk drives, floppy disk drives, CD ROM drives, DVD drives as well as other varieties of fixed and removable storage media. Many of today's computer systems employ integrated drive electronics (IDE) channels to couple these drives or devices to the system. Such a computer system typically includes both a primary channel and a secondary channel, each of which is capable of receiving a master and slave device.
In the enterprise environment as well as other environments, it is sometimes necessary to perform operating system upgrades, application software upgrades and application software installations on a target computer system from a remote computer system. The target computer system is usually coupled to the remote computer system via a network connection. It is often desirable that an information technology (IT) professional at the remote system perform such an upgrade/installation to the target computer system. This simplifies maintenance of the target system for the user of the target system. In this situation it is desirable that a device, such as a CD ROM drive or disk drive, physically present in the remote computer system appear as a virtual device in the target computer system. In this manner it can appear to the operating system of the target computer system that the remote device with the desired upgrade/installation software is virtually present in the target computer system.
Unfortunately in the above described scenario, a full IDE channel including both master and slave ports must be dedicated to a remote media drive which is virtually coupled to the target computer system. Providing an additional IDE channel for this purpose drives up system cost and adds to design complexity.
Therefore, what is needed is a way to avoid dedicating an entire channel to a remote media drive when the remote media drive is virtually coupled to the target computer system.